Strategies need to be chosen and developed for learners based on an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Many adults have developed strategies but these strategies may be ineffective. Due to adults' habitual patterns, they often don't want to give these strategies up.

Learners need to identify with and understand why and how the strategy is used before it can be implemented. When learners take ownership of their strategies, it is more likely they will utilize them independently and transfer the strategies appropriately to other situations they may encounter.

Steps to successful acquisition of a strategy

The Strategies Integration Model (SIM) has emerged from the research conducted at the University of Kansas. Based on cognitive behaviour modification, the SIM is one of the field's most comprehensive models for providing strategy instruction. It can be used to teach virtually any strategic intervention to students.

Both learning strategies and teaching strategies can be addressed using the Strategic Instruction Model. The learning strategies for learners will be addressed in modules 3 and 4, and Content Enhancement (teaching strategies) will be addressed in Module 5. The SIM is an integrated approach to address both the challenge of meeting the content demands for learners with diverse needs in a small group or classroom environment, and the performance gap. In this module, the use of the SIM will address how to deal with the performance gap through learning strategies.

The model can be used in a one-to-one situation where practitioners can teach learners the strategies that meet their identified needs. But how do practitioners implement the diverse learning strategies required in a classroom setting? First, they must accept the fact that they can't possibly use every individual strategy that may have been identified, when teaching a number of learners at once, but they can teach strategies that can be applicable to most learners at any given time. Effective learning strategies are ones that can address a significant learning area and that can be applied in various situations. For example, a reading comprehension strategy such as Paraphrasing strategy - RAP can be applied by all learners regardless of the varied levels of reading skills that may be found in one classroom. This reading strategy encourages learners to read a section of the material, ask questions regarding the main idea and details of the section, and encourages them to paraphrase the information in their own words. This paraphrasing strategy is an effective learning tool for all learners to help improve comprehension.